Ileana Baird
Associate Professor
- Email: Ileana.Baird@zu.ac.ae
- Telephone: +971 02 599 3760
- Address: Abu Dhabi - Khalifa City, FF2-2-050
Introduction
Background
After graduating from University of Virginia with a doctorate in English Language and Literature, I worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the same institution, and then as an Assistant Professor of English at King Faisal University, KSA. I have extensive experience teaching British and American literature, composition, and ESL courses in a variety of educational environments, both in the U.S. and abroad. My research interests include eighteenth-century British literature, visual and material culture, Orientalism, digital humanities, and second language acquisition. I joined Zayed University in the fall of 2016.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Current
Founding Member of the Digital Humanities Initiative at Zayed University, 2021
Member of the Research Committee, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2023-ongoing
Member of the Promotion Committee, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2023-ongoing
Previous:
Chair of the Newsletter Committee, College of Education, 2018-2020
Head of the Task Force for Developing a Major in English Language in Literature, Language Studies Department, CHSS, 2020-2021
Member of the Faculty Affairs Committee, College of Education, 2019-2020
Member of the Hiring Committee, University College, 2017-2018
Member of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Team, University College, 2016-2017
Member of the Research Committee, Language Studies Department, CHSS, 2020-2022
Member of the Curriculum Committee, Language Studies Department, CHSS, 2020-2022
Member of the Events Committee, Language Studies Department, CHSS, 2021-2022
Member of the Committee for the Promotion of the Literature Minor, Language Studies Department, CHSS, 2020-2021
Qualifications
PhD, English Language and Literature, University of Virginia, 2012
MA, English Language and Literature, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2006
BA in Romanian and English Language and Literature, University of Bucharest, 1991
Previous Positions
2015: Assistant Professor, King Faisal University
2013-2014: Lecturer, University of Virginia
2012-2013: Postdoctoral Preceptorship Fellow, University of Virginia
2006-2012: Graduate Instructor, University of Virginia
2004-2006: Graduate Instructor, Virginia Commonwealth University
Memberships
Modern Language Association (MLA)
American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)
American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS)
British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS)
Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (CSECS)
Romanian Studies Association of America (RSAA)
Languages
English and Romanian
Research and Professional Activities
My research interests include eighteenth-century British literature, visual and material culture, Orientalism, digital humanities, and second language acquisition. I am the editor of Data Visualization in Enlightenment Literature and Culture (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020) and Social Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century: Clubs, Literary Salons, Textual Coteries (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), and the co-editor of Eighteen-Century Thing Theory in a Global Context: From Consumerism to Celebrity Culture (Ashgate, 2014; Routledge, 2018), and All Things Arabia: Arabian Identity and Material Culture (Brill, 2020). I have authored articles on Alexander Pope and his circle and, in the field of language acquisition, a Dictionary of Common Mistakes in English (Polirom, 2016).
Over the years, I have been awarded various grants and research fellowships by the Mellon Foundation, Bradley Foundation, Yale University Library, SHANTI at University of Virginia, and Zayed University, to name just a few. I have presented my work at major international conferences (ASECS, NEASECS, ISECS, CSECS, MLA, ACLA) and I serve as a regular book reviewer for SHARP News (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) in Canada.
My current research projects focus on eighteenth-century book illustration and the formation of the public sphere in eighteenth-century England.
Teaching Areas
Undergraduate:
GEN 140 Composition I
GEN 145 Composition II
EWS 240 Composition III
ENG 240 Academic Literacy across Disciplines
CIT 285 Technical Communication
ENG 360 Film and Literature
ENG 364 Modern and Contemporary Literature
ENG 368 World Fiction
ENG 363 Drama
ENG 365 The Novel
Books:
Baird, I. Spaces, networks, things: Mapping the public in early eighteenth-century Britain (under review)
Baird, I. (2016). Dicţionar de dificultăti ale limbii engleze [A dictionary of common mistakes in English]. Common errors. False friends. Phrasal verbs. Collocations. Tests. Polirom.
Edited Collections:
Baird, I. (Ed.). (2021). Data visualization in Enlightenment literature and culture. Palgrave Macmillan.
Baird, I. & Yagcioglu, H. (Eds.). (2020). All things Arabia: Arabian identity and material culture. Brill.
Baird, I. & Ionescu, C. (Eds.). (2014; paperback 2018). Eighteenth-century thing theory in a global context. From consumerism to celebrity culture. Ashgate/Routledge.
Baird, I. (Ed.). (2014). Social networks in the long eighteenth century: Clubs, literary salons, textual coteries. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Recent Articles and Book Chapters:
Baird, I. (2024). Dipping your toe in the water: Turkish baths, or the fable of the Levant. 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, Volume 9. Bucknell University Press.
Baird, I. The Enlightenment’s dark spaces: Library as heterotopia in The Dunciad in Four Books. Eighteenth-Century Life, 48(3) (forthcoming 2024)
Baird, I. Book illustration and thing theory. Turning emotions into things: Louis du Guernier’s illustrations to the 1714 edition of The Rape of the Lock. In L. G. Dillard & C. Ionescu (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook in Eighteenth-Century Literary Illustration. Bloomsbury Visual Arts (forthcoming 2024)
